Partnerships · six neighbours we rely on
We are not a service-delivery charity, and at our scale we could not be. The six partners below are the people who refer households to us, take our referrals in return, and quietly hold the parish together with their own much larger and more sustained work.
Parish church · Farndon
The Reverend David Scurr is the rector and our ex-officio chair. The Parochial Church Council holds the trustees' ledger at the vestry. Many of our applications — particularly to the Coal & Bread Fund — come to us via the church wardens. Our annual Harvest collection is held at the 10.30 service in September.
Parish council · Farndon
The Parish Council appoints two of our three trustees under the 1962 Scheme. They also lend us the Memorial Hall (at parish-friendly rates) for the open meeting in June and for the Apprentice Bequest surgery in October. The Parish Clerk is our standing channel of communication with the wider parish.
Advice service
The duty officer at the Hoole Road office in Chester refers about a third of our Sick & Aged applications. They are unfailingly thoughtful, careful, and willing to suggest other charities where ours is the wrong fit. We could not, candidly, operate at our current standard without them.
Local authority
Our adult-social-care colleagues at CWAC sometimes refer households to us when a small one-off cost falls between the council's formal grant programmes. We are listed by name in the Council's social-prescribing directory and on the local Help Hub page.
Food bank
Helen, the duty manager at the Foodbank's Chester depot, is one of our most frequent referrers in winter. Where a household has reached the Foodbank's three-voucher limit and there is a specific identifiable cost beyond food, the Foodbank quietly points them to us. We try to reciprocate where we can.
Homelessness
An occasional partner where a Farndon-connected household has become homeless or near-homeless in Chester. CATH's casework team will sometimes ask whether a household with a substantial Farndon connection can be supported by us alongside their own work; the answer is often yes.
Considering a partnership?
We are sometimes approached by larger charities or local-authority teams considering a joint piece of work in the parish. We are happy to talk. Two things to know first.
Scale · we are very small. Our combined annual income across the four funds is, in a normal year, around £4,000–£5,000. We cannot match-fund significant projects. We can, however, often provide a small targeted grant to a parish household that complements your work.
Geography · we are constrained, by Scheme, to the civil parish of Farndon. We cannot operate outside the parish, even where the case is sympathetic.
Where there is a clear alignment with our remit, we will gladly write a letter to your funder, host a coffee at the Memorial Hall, or contribute the small parish-specific piece of a larger project.
Write to us about a partnership